Dismantling Disinformation, Part 4: Are nonprofits the key to solving digital disinformation?
Many people consider nonprofits more ethical than other institutions.
This article is the final installment of a series about how different groups can prevent the harmful effects of disinformation. Read part one, about governments, here, part two, about social media companies here, and part three, about the news media here.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into 2021, so does the seemingly never-ending “infodemic” of fake news and disinformation. Less than a week into the new year, rioters echoing social media conspiracy theories took to Washington, DC, where they attacked members of the news media, and broke into the Capitol Building with the possible goal of violently attacking government officials. In the wake of the Trump presidency, trust seems to be in short supply. However, nonprofits are trusted as being more ethical than the government, news media, and businesses. In the US, overall trust in nonprofits actually increased during the start of the pandemic. Those seeking an end to disinformation should leverage this reliability. In a time when so many Americans are skeptical of other sources of information, what can nonprofits do to stop the spread of fake news and disinformation?
Nonprofits can take certain preemptive, immediate, and long term measures to help stop the spread of disinformation. Because there is such a wide variety of topics that nonprofits can focus on, the ways each individual nonprofit can work against disinformation will vary.
Preemptive
Outreach is one common preemptive measure that many nonprofits can take. Before crucial civic events like elections, nonprofits can reach out to other groups, including those in the government and the private sector, to make sure they are ready for a potential influx of disinformation. If these groups are not ready, nonprofits should offer to help implement safeguards or direct the groups to other resources. Because nonprofits are created to solve problems instead of to make money, they may also be able to provide expert guidance or services to these institutions for free or cheap compared to other solutions. By partnering with nonprofit organizations, governments and companies can develop robust preemptive solutions to expected problems.
For example, humanID, an independent single sign-on built for privacy, works with websites to implement tools to prevent bots from flooding their site with spam and lies. Since it is run by a nonprofit, users can trust that their data won’t be sold.
Similarly, in anticipation of the 2020 US election, Chalkbeat — a nonprofit which usually focuses on education — created Votebeat, a “pop-up, nonprofit newsroom” to form a network of media companies and nonprofits across eight states. Together, these groups were able to help fill information voids caused by a lack of quality local reporting. If possible, nonprofits should also fundraise before critical events if necessary to ensure they have enough resources to respond to emerging disinformation.
Immediate
Once problems do emerge, nonprofits should be prepared to respond immediately. Nonprofits should leverage public trust to quickly provide unbiased critiques of fake news stories and disinformation. In the wake of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution, the Ukraine Crisis Media Center (UCMC) was launched in Ukraine to rapidly set up communications channels for the new government. While working against a heavy disinformation campaign from Russia, this nonprofit group was able to help fill the communications void left after the revolution. UCMC helped new government departments find spokespeople, countered disinformation with in-depth analysis, and encouraged media coverage by members of the foreign press to help show the world what was really happening in Ukraine.
During times of confusion, nonprofits in the US can take on roles similar to UCMC’s communications and fact checking efforts. Several fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and Science Feedback operate as nonprofits, ensuring readers that their content will be far removed from financial biases. Other nonprofits can offer their expertise by correcting individual stories or rumors which fall into their areas of focus. Greenpeace did this last year when misinformation began to spread claiming that Australia’s unprecedented wildfires were started by arson (they were actually caused by dry lightning storms and exacerbated by climate change).
Long term
In the long term, nonprofits should help build relationships with businesses, the government, and the media. Nonprofits can act as lines of communication between these groups to prevent misunderstandings. First Draft News, for example, is a nonprofit coalition of private-sector and non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting communities from harmful misinformation. By working together with nonprofits, tech companies, news organizations and academic institutions, First Draft compiles research and training resources to help newsrooms cover misinformation.
Nonprofits can also bring experts and organizations together from across these sectors to brainstorm further solutions to disinformation. Large nonprofit foundations can fund research projects and bridge-building efforts to ensure that experts know as much as possible about how disinformation spreads and how to stop it.
In the long term, nonprofits should also work to improve media literacy in the US. Groups like Media Literacy Now and the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) are already doing this, but other larger educational nonprofits like Stand for Children and Teach for America should also make teaching media literacy one of their larger goals.
Nonprofits are a critical component in the fight against disinformation, but only by working across sectors can we make the changes that are necessary to ensure that our systems support a free, informed, and alert society.
If you enjoyed this article, check out the other installments of this series below:
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